Nambung Here We Come!
14 September 2017
Must admit its been difficult pulling ourselves out of our new home to do the preparation to the travel west to Nambung. After what seems like much planning and days of cleaning it was nice to hit the road this morning. We finally left town at 10am. First stop was the Woolworths Supermarket to stock up on supplies before heading to fuel up in Gympie. Then it was off into the mountains to west of Gympie. The wind today was a challenge with gusts heading straight towards us. This made progress slow. Camped at Coominglah State Forest for the night.
15 September 2017
Was a great sleep last night, cool and quiet. To make distance today we broke camp early and headed to Emerald for fuel, our last major top up before Alice Springs. We pulled up on the Western side of Longreach at Macsland Rest Area. This is the first time Alison had time to break out the drone and below is the short video of the flight.
16 September 2017
Left early today to try and make the Old / NT Border by sunset. The drive would take us to Winton where Australia’s Longest Shortcut starts to Laverton WA. The drive from Winton to Boulia looks such a short trip on paper, but it is indeed 360kms. From here we took the Donohue Highway to the border. We arrived just before sunset. A common misconception here is the Donohue is unsealed. In fact about half the distance between has been sealed. Traditionally the unsealed sections are in well kept condition, not the case this trip.
Ever asked what it is like to pass a big truck on these dusty dirt highways. We were passed by a 4 truck convoy and managed to take a little video to show the what it is like. Believe me, we are always happy to be well off the road and away from the shower of stones and dust.
17 September 2017
First stop this morning was the border crossing where the Donohue Highway becomes the Plenty Highway. Traditionally a stop must be made for the photo and with time to spare it was done.
We also were pleasantly surprised that the Plenty Highway was in the best condition we have seen it in 3 years. This made the 580kms to Alice Springs much easier where we originally allowed 2 days to traverse this section. Another tradition is to stop at the termite nest which dominates the side of the road. Such an amazing sight.
We didn’t pass much traffic today, but we did meet new friends. When we saw an approaching FG84 Canter we slowed down and met a group of great guys. Steve, Mark and Dan were on their way to the Hay River Track. Steve was very proud of his FG84. He had owned it for 3 years and built a custom camper on the back. This sat on a set of ATW parabolic and 19.5 Toyo tyres. The canter recently completed the Canning Stock Route and didn’t miss a beat. Even reversing up sand dunes to recover other 4WDs. Safe trip guys as you make your way back to New Castle!
Quick time was made before reaching Alice Springs at 4pm in time to pick up food, fuel etc before finding a camp for the night.
18 September 2017
This morning with left Alice Springs with a relatively short 450kms drive to Uluru. It is here we hope to catch up with friends of 17 years Janelle and Paul. We rolled into their camping ground about 1pm and spent a hour catching up before heading off to our favourite camping stop to rest up after a very long few days driving.
As we were still running road tire pressures we had to air down to make it up the last dune. It was here we found Mick, Kate, Ash and Ella creating their own sandcastle of Uluru. Well thats the story we are sworn to stick with. Anyway after 1 last attempt to dig them out we hooked 4WDaus up and safely plucked them from their well dug in spot.
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